Wayland's Smithy Long Barrow, Ashbury, Oxfordshire, England
[ Please forgive the poor sound in this video, due to the wind. ] Wayland's Smithy is a Neolithic (late Stone Age) burial chamber in southern England. Fascinating place. See for further details. Our host Andrew, proprietor of The Lodge in Avebury Wiltshire tells a story that anyone who ties a horse up there overnight and leaves a penny in one of the little holes in the stones will find the horse with new shoes in the morning. It is a ~2km walk from the parking lot to the Uffington White Horse, a Bronze Age site. This video is from March 2011. PS - if you visit this area, stay at The Lodge - great place and a wonderful host. Avebury is a tiny village built within a Neolithic henge
Wayland's Smithy impressive barrow Review of Wayland Smithy Ashbury England
Wayland's Smithy impressive barrow Review of Wayland Smithy Ashbury England
The burial chamber underwent two distinct phases of construction, identified during excavations in the 1960's. In the first phase an oval mound was erected, which covered a wooden and stone structure with a floor paved with Sarcen stones. The remains of 14 bodies were found from this period, all badly damaged as if the roof had fallen in on them. No part of this structure now survives, as it was incorporated into the mound seen today.In Phase 2, started around 3500BC, the mound was enlarged to the trapezoid shape using earth from two flanking ditches, which are no longer visible. The mound was edged with Sarcen slabs, and had a facade of 6 larger stones (two of which are missing) at the Southern end. A stone lined passage was built within this Southern face with two chambers forming a cruciform shape (see Phase 2 diagram). When excavated the bones of 8 people were found, although the tomb had been robbed long before, probably during the Iron Age period.The burial chamber is named after Wayland (Weland, Volund, Volundr) the Saxon god of metal working, although he is often seen as one of the elven race rather than a god. Wayland is the same as Volundr or Volund, who is described in Norse myth, recorded from Iceland in the form of a poem. Volundr is a smith of outstanding quality, his work is so prized that a vain king called Niduth lames him and sets him to work on an island. In revenge Volundr kills the King's two greedy sons, fashioning goblets from their skulls. He then rapes the King's daughter, and fashions wings with which he escapes from the Island. Before he flies off to Valhalla he lands on the archway of the palace and reveals the nature of his revenge to the King and his subjects.Traditionally, Wayland still inhabited the mound and was ready to shoe a horse. The horse had to be left at the mound alone for a short period, along with the payment of a silver coin. On returning the horse would have been shod and the payment would have disappeared.
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Crop Circles 2011 - Wayland Smithy, Ashbury, Oxfordshire, UK 4 August 2011
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United Kingdom 2011 crop circles report from Wayland Smithy near Ashbury, Oxfordshire on 4th July
Wayland's Smithy Neolithic tomb - Oxfordshire
Wayland's Smithy
I made this little film to show podcast listeners where we walked (also The White Horse, Dragon Hill and Uffington Hill Fort) with Sgt Chris Webb while recording an Unlimited Podcast episode with him. You can find it at
The link to the Just Giving site on the stone we found is:
Wayland's Smithy
Visit to Wayland's Smithy near Uffington Castle on 14th Oct 2012. Beautiful weather and amazing feeling at this ancient site. Well worth a visit. Very peaceful atmosphere, and beautiful old trees surrounding this monument.
Tales of Wayland's Smithy by Andy Foley, National Trust
Disabled Ramblers at Wayland's Smithy after rambling from Ashdown House
Wayland's Smithy, Bellamy's People
Found this place out walking, recognised it from this clip... Wayland's Smithy, The Ridgeway (Oxfordshire)
Views from Uffington White Horse Hill & Waylands Smithy, The Ridgeway - 18th July 2016
I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (
Wayland's Smithy
A reading from my book on the folklore of natural history. This passage deals with legends surrounding the megalithic chambered tomb known as Wayland's Smithy, on the Ridgeway near Uffington.
Wayland's Smithy Summer Solstice 2008 part 5
Thames Valley Paranormal visit Waylands Smithy. Two more investigators sit a vigil inside the chamber and one of them feels touched several times.
Wayland's Smithy has Wings
Well, that seemed to be a good title for an aerial exploration of this beautiful Neolithic landmark. But to me, Julian Cope's 1992 ode to old Wēland sounds more like the soundtrack to a Captain Kremmen episode. I think the place really deserves something more 'spiritual'.
Wayland Smithy. Tomb of the ancestors
Read the meaningful words of a friend here
Hello Sandy,
Beautifully done and words from the heart. Took me straight back there. We ARE the people who made something of our lands and fought and bled over them and shaped our little world to support us, the North West European peoples indigenous to these mountains, rivers, moors, downs and meadows.
We carved our story into the landscape and marked our tribal lands in oak and sarsen stone and with the bones of our chieftains and our loved ones. They deserve our veneration for they link us directly to these islands we call home and I feel their presence at the ancient places made and on the days we know they held to be special.
Your candle was a fitting tribute to those who went before, its flame burns in the stone womb of the Smithy and in the mead halls and ale lodges of Valhalla and warms the battered bodies of the einerjar, the immortal souls of bygone armies of warrior farmers and spearmen on the palisades of our hillforts. The flame burns brighter for them all everytime one of their sons or daughters lights another in rememberance of them. Our forebears live in us. While we breath as a race the flame burns in the halls of our ancestors. It is my greatest and most fervent prayer that the flame and our folk are never extinguished for that would douse out the light of the world and herald a second
Barbarian age of Darkness. Excellent video mate,
You can see how its kicked me into gear a bit. Lump in the throat job. I hope all goes well for the owl. You were meant to find him. He had one eye. Odin was there watching...with his one eye.
Thank you for stirring my still waters.
An emotional Chris :-)
The Treachery of Beautiful Thing - the Ridgeway & Wayland's Smithy
The third of three author videos: The Ridgeway & Wayland's Smithy
Previous The Enchanted Forest -
And The Greenman-
Come and explore the Realm.
The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long - Dial Books, 16th August 2012
A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction
The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she's lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack's help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she's faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice--and not just her own.
On Sale 16th August 2012
ISBN: 9780803735804
Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin (USA) Inc.
Find out more at rflong.com and penguin.com/teen
Music by Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com
@RFLong on Twitter, rflong.com,
Weylands Smithy
Film of the Neolithic long barrow Weyland's Smithy near Uffington, Oxfordshire, England. A site associated with the Anglo-Saxon smith god Weyland.
Film, photos and music editing by Thorskegga Thorn. The music was produced by pre recorded loops using Garageband software.
wayland's smithy,,(us and them)
Atmospheric Wayland's Smithy
Montage from a visit to the old Neolithic barrow, to the music of Popol Vuh. Play the music at maximum volume!!
Waylands Smithy 1 Feb 2012
On a 12 mile hike on 1 Feb 2012, stopped at Waylands Smithy on the way to the White Horse and Devil's Hill (where the battle of George and the Dragon supposedly took place) at Uffingdon, Oxfordshire, England.
This is england Xmas special on ashbury drive
Few takes from the action. Eli from some soap is drivin!